One of the Best Places to Catch the Latest Wine Trends, and It's Not at a Fancy Wine Bar.

One of my favorite bars has just closed its door recently. Well, the place technically didn't have even a door to the bar as it was INSIDE of one of major US grocery store. I don't know which countries you guys readers are from and this may be normal thing in your country, yet, occasionally you can hit bar inside a grocery store in the US (I've seen a bar in a Whole Foods Market before).

It was pretty famous hang-out spot among locals and visitors during holiday seasons, as people would get together at their parents' or relatives' houses and just go grocery shopping for prepping their turkeys, greeen bean casserole and pecan pie. Or, out of boredom to quiet all down with a purchase of ice cream.

Regulars go-to drinks were served before they sat down at the bar. Occasional big themed parties like a retirement celebration of a well-loved and longtime serving famous boss with 120 people and DJ's. The last opening days of bar, all the regulars came back to hang out with everybody for several days in a row. Yes, this all happened at a bar inside a grocery store.

Although fairly small with just a counter and around 10 seats, they offered selections of more than 10 rotating beer taps and almost every style of wine from the bottle selection of the store.

With a diverse group of people from all walks of life, spectrum of ages and backgrounds was better than your typical bars as, it brought people together by a shared, critical mission to grocery shop.

From doctors, teachers, engeneers, construction workers, pilots to retirees- everyone has to go grocery shopping at some point in a week. It turned picking up groceries as a tedious chore into a fun weekly get-together.

Naturally, this is an interesting place to observe what people choose to sample and what kind of bottles of wine people pick up for their beef stew in a slow cooker for dinner at home.

Conversation topics at the bar almost always revolved about food at home. What's for dinner tonight? What's the best recipe for the turkey stuffing, or how to make tofu patties as a healthier substitute for meat (that was one of my talking points- I'll write the recipe if you want).

Of course, being in the wine corner the topics would then move around food and wine paring.

To me, it's one of the best place to catch up with the real and latest wine trend of the area.

The Shift from Heavy & Bold Red Wine to Lighter & Fruity Reds

It has been said for a quite while in consumer trends in the wine industry and, I witnessed this firsthand, with a suspicion that this is due to the change of diet at home. People has started to eat lighter and healthier at home, away from heavier and chunky red meats, steak or strongly seasoned smokey BBQs to lighter poultry dishes or simple grilled fish and pasta.

From the broadly accepted food and wine pairing principles, as to red wines, bold and big red wines go well with red meat dishes like filet mignon and lighter and fruity side of reds pair better with lighter white meat or fish like grilled chicken or salmon. So, if the eating habit of people has changed like that, there should have been changes in their choices for wine pairing accordingly.

Thus, customers may have started to prefer fruit-foward lighter reds such as Pinot Noir or Grenache from Oregon than bold with punchy tannin, heavily oaked classical Cabernet Sauvignon from Central Valley California.

As a Matter of Fact, They May Do Like Chardonnay When They Say "I Hate Chardonnay".

Chardonnay is one of the dominant grape varieties as a white wine on the shelves of wine corner in a major grocery store in the US in my area. So that popular varietal whites are always one of the choices at that bar, and I often used to hear "Oh, I hate Chardonnay." when I asked what kinds of white wines people would pick as their quick hydration while shopping.

And almost all the time they described their Chardonnay as a vanilla-scented candle like smell with rich and melted butter flavored type one. And in this case, the customer I was chatting with, they were talking about how they hates Chardonnay. Where their impression of Chardonnay was closely related to their non-cool aunt's love for buttery and heavy Chard and therefore they consider Chardonnay itself is outdated variety. But actually, that vanilla and butter aromas and flavors are not coming from the Chardonnay grape itself, they come from winemaking.

Chardonnay can be grown and ripen in wide variety of climates from cold to hot. In cooler climate, it can show fresh green apple and lemon flavors while in moderate to warm and hot climate these fruit profile changes to riper fruit, such as peach and melon to banana and pineapple.

Its fruit profile can change due to the growing climate it was in, yet these are also subtle aromas therefore Chardonnay sometimes is called a blank canvas as it can reflect completely different kinds of winemaking technique, like MLC, yeast and oak.

Malolactic conversion (MLC) takes place after alcoholic fermentation has finished, and it's converting the tart malic grape acid into the softer lactic adics. This reaction softens and reduces acidity, adding buttery flavors such as cream, butter and cheese.

Yeast gives Chardonnay a toasty, bready, or biscuit-like flavor through a process called autolysis, and maturing wine in oak gives Chardonnay vanilla, toast flavors.

Thus Chardonnay can display completely different faces on its own. Melting vanilla ice cream flavored type is not the only Chardonnay.

After this person who claimed to hate Chardonnay was served a fresh and fruity unoaked glass of Chardonnay with full of refreshing green and citrus fruit flavors from cooler Russian River Valley in California, they really liked it that they bought a few bottles to take back home. Yes, that small grocery store bar had good wine expart as a bartainder as well (He's too good to be just a customer service personnel at a wine section in the store).

New Normal: Easy Daily Bubbly

Another trend I've noticed while shopping and sipping wine at a bar counter in the grocery store has been the remarkable increase of people buying sparkling wine to take them back home on a daily basis.

Sparkling wines, especially Champagne, have been strongly associated with special occasions and celebrations like wedding parties or congrats on somebody's promotions, and they're essential to the holiday spirit of Christmas or New Year's Eve parties.

But particularly after the Covid, people started to take their bubbly back home from the almost complete halt in social gatherings and parties during the pandemic lockdown period.

It seems that in the post-Covid era, opening a bottle of sparkling wine has become a casual, everyday pleasure, not just for special occasions.

I did a little research to see if this trend was true. I couldn't find actual consumption data but found some production and imports data, and tried to make them look easier to understand a general trend.

Figure: Total Sparkling Wine Production & Imports

Note. Graph created by Yuka,T basted on data adapted from "Sparkling Wine Production & Imports," (n.d.), by WINE INSTITUTE, (https://wineinstitute.org/our-industry/statistics/us-sparkling-wine-champagne-shipments/).

Figure above indicates the shifted amount of total sparkling wine production and imports in the world. From 2019 to 2020 when Covid started to outbreak globally, the producion and imports of sparkling wine decreased 3.45%. This makes sense as people just stopped going out for drinking or throwing parties on any occasions.

Yet, in the following years, from 2020 to 2022, saw a sharp increase year over year (32.6%). This indicates of course the gradual resumption of wining & dining out, but the growth rate of 32.6% is surprisingly higher compared to the previous rate of decline of 3.45%. It could be argued that this contributes to the rapid surge in household consumption. Later in 2023 and 2024 the trend moves downward, however the number in 2023-2024 still exceeds pre-Covid numbers in 2019 and 2020.

In short, overall production and import volumes of sparkling wine have increased over the past five years, including during the COVID pandemic.

It is also mentionable the great success of Prosecco and Cava among these years, both in mixology and especially in at-home consumption. Sky-high inflation right after the pandemic should take some blame as generally prices of Chapmagne are much higher compared to those in Prosecco and Cava. According to a report from the Drinks Business, over the past seven years, Prosecco sales have risen 178%, to US$500 million in sales.

No wonder, we've seen noticeable increase of display shelves for Prosecco and Cava in the grocery store.

It is not that people are celebrating something everyday. Enjoying affordable bubblies in more relaxed home more frequently has become the new normal.

It's just that sparkling wine has made the leap from a special occasion drink to an everyday luxury.

These are the three trends or points I've picked up on while stopping at our favorite bar in the grocery store for several years living in this Southeast town in the US. Thanks to that place, I've had chances to see what's really going on in real trends of wine among ordinary consumers in a grocery store.

Isn't it something that we can do grocery shopping, sipping at a bar while following wine trends all at the same time?

And of course, it was just fun to have a little chat over glass of wine with whoever stopped by there.

Cheers!

Sources

Sparkling Wine Production & Imports (n.d.). WINE INSTITUTE. Retrieved May 15, 2026 https://wineinstitute.org/our-industry/statistics/us-sparkling-wine-champagne-shipments/

Sophie Arundel, (2025, October 3). Prosecco powers past US$500m in US sales as it outshines Champagne, The Drinks Business. Retreived May 15,2026 https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2025/10/prosecco-powers-past-us500m-in-us-sales-as-it-outshines-champagne/